Our Team

At Meridiana, our strength lies in the power of collaboration. Our team brings together a rare blend of academic excellence, practitioner experience, and cultural fluency. Co-led by Dr. Vanessa Brown, an award-winning scholar with expertise in security and gender studies, and Frieda García Castellanos, a seasoned practitioner with years of experience advising governments, militaries, and international organizations across the Americas, Meridiana combines rigorous analysis with practical solutions.

We are more than consultants, we are accomplished bridge-builders. Rooted in the Global South and North, our team speaks the languages, understands the contexts, and navigates the systems that shape policy and practice. With trusted partners in Latin America, the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific, and a proven track record around the world, we operate at the intersections of gender, governance, and security to deliver insights that matter and strategies that work.

Meridiana is united by a shared commitment: to design pathways for gender justice that are ethical, inclusive, and transformative. We see every project as an opportunity to elevate local voices, shift structures, and create solutions that endure.

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Dr. Vanessa Brown – Academic Lead

Dr. Vanessa Brown is an experienced international consultant with deep expertise in gender and intersectional research, training, and education. With a robust academic and professional background in sociology and political science, she specializes in transforming institutional cultures through gender perspectives and intersectional frameworks. She works globally, with experience in South American contexts, to advance Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), Youth, Peace and Security, Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus), and intersectionality to address systemic inequities in peace and (in)security and to resist national backsliding on gender justice. 

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Frieda Castellanos – Practitioner Lead

Frieda G. Castellanos is a strategic advisor and communicator with over 12 years of experience in the Inter-American system. She has worked with vulnerable communities as a pro bono interpreter and as a Gender Advisor for the security sector. She was selected by the Organization of American States, USSOUTHCOM and USNORTHCOM as their first Gender Focal Point at the Inter-American Defense College, where she also became the first Gender Advisor to the Director and Commandant. Frieda has led institutional reforms, developed bilingual Gender Perspective and GBV prevention training for security and policy personnel in the LAC region, and helped shape WPS policy efforts. 

Sategic alitrgnment for gender justice at your fingertips